THE EFFECTS OF THE PARENT TRAINING PROGRAM FOR OBESITY REDUCTION ON ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASURES OF SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN

The purposes of the study were to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of the Parent Training Program for Obesity Reduction (PTPOR) on anthropometric measures of school-aged children in Bangkok, Thailand. Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) technique was used to conduct the program. The PTPOR is a randomized control trial design. Participants were school-aged overweight or obese children, and their parents. One hundred and one parent-child dyads were recruited and randomly assigned into the PTPOR (N = 30), Educational Intervention or EI (N = 32), and control group (N = 39). The parents in the PTPOR group participated in eight weeks of training including an educational session, a cooking session, aerobic exercise training, 2-time group discussion sessions, and 4-times telephoned counseling sessions. The Repeated Measure ANCOVA was used to analyze data. The results revealed that the outcomes of the PTPOR group were better than the EI and the control groups at 1 st, 8 th, and 32 nd weeks after finishing the program such as child BMI percentile, F(2,97) = 10.54, p =.00, waist circumference (F(2,97) = 7.56, p =.00), and body fat percentage (F(2,97) = 6.78, p =.00). The results suggest that nurses and health care providers should apply the PTPOR for weight control and for the promotion of a healthy lifestyle among overweight and obese children.